A while back, I added a post on my philosophy of ministry. I’ve revised it, and wanted to go ahead and post the new one as well.
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Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God
Michael E. Wittmer
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (May 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310253071
ISBN-13: 978-0310253075
Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
Buy Here: amazon.com

We have looked at the first three parts of Heaven is a Place on Earth, which explain “where we are,” “who we are,” “why are we here,” and “what’s wrong with the world?” This brings us to the fourth and final section of the book, “What is God’s Plan for This World?”
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An updated philosophy of Ministry can be found here: Revised Philosophy of Ministry

I was looking over the application process for Sojourn’s Pastoral School when one of the requirements caught my eye. They require a philosophy of ministry. I’m not even sure what a philosophy of ministry is let alone ever thought of one for myself. Well, I had a few hours to think about it during my drive to West Virginia for the weekend, and this is what I came up with. In terms of pastoral ministry, my philosophy of ministry is:

To equip and train the body of Christ to be incarnational missionaries through the preaching and teaching of the Scriptures in accordance with the historical orthodox faith.

That’s loaded with a lot of nice Christianese, so I’m going to try and unpack that.

1. To equip and train the body of Christ: Ephesians 4:11-12 says that “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” The use of the gifts given for teaching and leadership are for the purpose of training the body of Christ for service.

2. Incarnational Missionaries: I’ll take this phrase in reverse order. We have come to a place where “missionaries” are “those people,” the ones who don’t quite fit in culturally, wear funny clothes, and want to live in huts. Obviously, that isn’t what it means to be a missionary, but it’s also not just about going somewhere across the ocean. It’s my belief that all Christians are missionaries, and the mission starts with neighbors, with coworkers, and with those we come into contact with every day. We are all ambassadors of Christ:2 Corinthians 5:20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so nthat they may see your good works and ogive glory to your Father who is in heaven.” By incarnational, I mean that this mission occurs where the people are at. Just as Jesus came into our world to present his glory ot the world (John 1:14), so we should speak of his glory where we find ourselves. The gospel is not about “bringing them to church to get saved,” but proclaiming the Gospel, in both word and deed, wherever we are at.

3. Through the preaching and teaching of the scriptures: The inerrant, inspired Scriptures are the highest authority in rules of life and faith. It is these scriptures which Paul charged Timothy to teach as an elder (1 and 2 Timothy). “All Scripture is God–breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work,” 2 Timothy 3:16-17. All pastors share in Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to “correctly handle the Word of Truth” contained within Scripture (2 Timothy 2:15).

4. According to the historical orthodox faith: This isn’t to say that tradition is on the same level as Scripture itself, but to recognize that God has guarded the truth apostolic faith through history, and is summarized by creeds and confessions. This helps us realize that Christianity isn’t all about us, but that we are only the present articulation of the whole Church throughout history. God has long been at work, and will continue to work long after we are gone if he doesn’t return in our lifetimes. To use a cliché, but one that is well said, we “stand on the shoulders of giants,” and are grateful for the labor they gave to move the mission and kingdom of God forward.

So there you have it. That’s my philosophy of ministry as much as I understand what a philosophy of ministry should be.

Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God
Michael E. Wittmer
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (May 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310253071
ISBN-13: 978-0310253075
Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
Buy Here: amazon.com

So far, we have looked over the first two parts of Heaven is a Place on Earth. In doing so, we have covered two questions that pertain to worldviews, and saw how Christianity answers them: The first is “What is this Place?” which looks at what the Bible says about creation; the second is “Why are We Here?” and looks at what our purpose in life is in regard to relationships between people and God, other people, and creation. These sections are much shorter at two chapters each. We now move on to part III, “What is Wrong with Me and My World? The Fall in Genesis 3-11
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Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God
Michael E. Wittmer
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (May 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310253071
ISBN-13: 978-0310253075
Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
Buy Here: amazon.com

In the last post, I surveyed the first four chapters of Michael Wittmer’s book, Heaven is a Place on Earth. These chapters make up the introduction and the first of four parts, focusing on “What is this Place?” which is a look at what the Bible says about creation. He ended the section with a piece on being made “in the image of God” with a really helpful chart on the “three-fold” image (see last post for the chart). The chapters in Part Two, “Why are We Here?” focus on those relationships between people and God, other people, and creation. This section will be the focus of this post.
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Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God
Michael E. Wittmer
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (May 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310253071
ISBN-13: 978-0310253075
Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
Buy Here: amazon.com

One of the verses I have struggled with comes at the end of 1 Corinthians 15:

“So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” (v. 58)

Why the confusion? Because this is how Paul ends his argument for the reality of the resurrection. The reason our work is not useless is because Christ has risen. What does the resurrection have to do with how we go about our day-to-day lives? Our vocations, our leisure, mowing the grass- it all matters, according to Paul, but why? My two favorite books from last year spoke to this- “Surprised by Hope,” by N.T. Wright, talks of the new heavens and new earth as the Christian hope. He focuses on the eschatological realities. “Culture Making,” by Andy Crouch, talks about the reality of our creative calling to produce culture, not just critique it and ignore it, but that we should actively engage it.

Michael Wittmer’s book “Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God” takes the best of these two books and puts it into one- and oddly enough it was written 4 years previous to the other two. Wittmer argues for the “tremendous dignity and value of everyday life” by “taking you from Creation to the Fall, to Redemption, and to glimpses from the book of Revelation” (book description on the back). Wittmer’s goal is to get us to view all of life through the Christian worldview. That is, to view everything through the lens of Biblical Christianity. The result is one of the best books on “the Christian life” that I have read to date. Wittmer gets it.
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Thought I would put up a little status report as I’m nearing the end of the semester. Now that I got a few tests and quizzes out of the way, as well as the “harder” chapters for Hebrew, I have been tackling my paper for Systematic Theology I. The paper is on the Problem of Evil- but considering it’s only a 9 page position paper, it’s really hard to say all that I want to say. Basically, I’m looking at the two main types of arguments atheologians bring against theism. The first argument is the deductive argument that Christian theism is logically inconsistent with the existence of evil, and therefore necessarily false. If the argument is valid, then Christianity is proven to be false, and is irrational.
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“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”
John 1:1

Some have made the argument that the greek word λογος (logos, “word”) in the opening verses of John’s Gospel should be better translated as “logic.” Gordon H. Clark, Christian theologian and philosopher, once wrote “Any translation of John 1:1 that obscures this emphasis on mind or reason is a bad translation. And if anyone complains that the idea of ratio or debate obscures the personality of the second person of the Trinity, he should alter his concept of personality. In the beginning, then, was Logic.”

However, this hardly follows. Why should we assume that a translation is faulty, or outright wrong, for using “word” over “logic?” Presuppositions notwithstanding, I see no reason why every English translation that has been used by the Church since TyndalWycliffe has been a wrong translation. In fact, I believe the context of 1)the prologue (verses 1-14) of John, and 2) the Gospel of John en toto suggests that our translations have it correct.
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The question of the possibility of miracles is of up-most important to Christians. The two aspects of Christianity that make it what it is, the incarnation and resurrection of Christ, are rooted in the miraculous.  The purpose of this short upcoming series is to defend the reality of Biblically defined miracles.  This will be done in two ways: a defensive approach and an offensive approach.

The defense approach will come first.  The work of David Hume has been the foundation of the attacks against the possibility of miracles ever since the 1740s, when his main argument against them was penned.  Considering that most people assume that he has settled the issue once and for all- it would be good for us to consider his argument (albeit very briefly) to see if it has weight.

Turning from a defense against Hume’s argument, we will take the offensive position in a look at world-views.  Ultimately, the question of miracles will be answered by our world-view.  If we are Christian, our theistic world-view incorporates the possibility of miracles.  The main opposing world-view, naturalism, rejects the possibilities of miracles by default.  Because this is essentially a battle of presuppositions (ideas we bring into the debate), it is a battle of world-views.  In this section I will briefly offer a critique on the naturalist position.

Throughout the series, I will be heavily using material from Ron Nash.  I am absolutely indebted to his introductory books on the subject of philosophy, and for this short series, particularly the chapters on Hume and miracles. As a conduit between Nash and my readers, I hope to make available a defense of the Christian faith that some would not normally pick up and read.

Next: A Look at Hume

One of the hardest days out of the year for me is Father’s Day.  For those of you who don’t know my story (and if you stick around long enough, you will- I post bits and pieces amongst the theological issues), I have never met my dad. Some days are harder than others.  It’s not debilitating most of the time; weeks go by without it bringing a halt to everyday activities. Weeks turn to months. The feelings of sadness are usually always there, but its nothing that really keeps me from functioning. But then there are days where the pain gets to be soul-crushingly unbearable. One of those days hit a week or so ago.

Everything just stopped. Which, thank God, happened on a day that I had off from everything. Thoughts kept plaguing my mind- “What does it feel like to be hugged by your father?” and “Does he ever even think of me?” and “I just want to tell him I love him, even if its just once.”  Fathers, I plead with you to realize now just how far reaching the emotional effects you can leave on your son.  They need you. Read the rest of this entry